The Last Fantastic Four Story
by Scottenkainen
Summary: I wrote this 3 years ago when I believed every good Fantastic Four story had already been told. It is the year 2000 and the Fantastic Four have aged with real time, grown beyond the confines of their continuity, and now face their final challenge.


The Last Fantastic Four Story

by Scott Casper

October 2000.

Blue Area of the Moon.

Home of the Watcher.

The fluid drained quickly from John Storm's stasis tube. His eyes fluttered open and he looked about. He saw the Black Panther first. T'Challa was slumped against the wall, breathing heavy, his old costume torn and bloodied.

"T'Challa," John said as he stumbled out of the vertical tube, ripping the gas mask and sensors off his face. "Are you all right?"

The Black Panther removed his mask so he could breath better. Sweat ran down from his white hair over his wrinkled features. "I'm not dead yet," he said with pride. "John, Maximus is still here. I disabled his armor, but that likely only slowed him down."

John nodded. "I know. Maximus was feeding us images of his victory' through those sensors. I saw Crystal go down. Is she all right?"

"I think she and Gorgon were only stunned."

"Did you bring anyone else?"

"The Silver Surfer is in the Negative Zone, trying to free Uatu. Most of the others...they're gone. We lost so many in the holocaust..."

John choked back a sob. Seeing the nuclear bomb wipe out New York City was hard on them all. If they hadn't have been off-planet at the time, Fantastic Four Inc. might have been down there alongside the Avengers, the X-Men...

No. There was no time for that. John straightened his back and stretched his arms and legs. He could feel each of his 55 years of age weigh heavily upon him, but knew it was worse for T'Challa. "Can you walk?" John asked him.

"Forget about me. I'll be fine. Just get the rest of your family and stop Maximus."

John nodded, but knew that was easier said than done. The architecture in the Watcher's home wasn't bound by most laws of physics. There appeared to be a doorway nearby that led out of the room they were in, but it took longer than it should to reach it by walking. John looked down at the trail of blood and admired T'Challa's ability to drag himself so far with half his leg cut off by a laser.

"Flame on," John whispered outloud. As he willed it to happen, his body was shunted out of phase with the physical world and super-heated plasma filled the void where he should be. He willed the fiery icon to blast off into flight so he could search rooms more quickly. He passed through three rooms that contained nothing he recognized until he realized he was back in the second room again. He grimaced in frustration, but then heard a voice in his head.

"Look again," it said.

John turned his head, and noticed the room looked different out of the corner of his eye. He saw a stasis tube against the side wall and walked towards it sideways so he couldn't look directly at it. When he reached out and touched it, it stayed there. Inside was Ben

Grimm. John sighed with relief that his old friend was still alive. Ben had done little adventuring with the team since he was cured of being the Thing and reverted to his true age. Poor Ben wasn't a good-looking man back when John had first met him, but looked even worse now that he was 80. Luckily, John knew enough science to figure out how to open the stasis tubes just as T'Challa had done.

John held out a hand to steady Ben as he hobbled out of the tube, but Ben swatted his hand away. As Ben dislodged the gas mask from his face he said, "Ya got lucky, kid. I was ready to rescue you myself in another minute or two."

"Sure, Ben. Any idea where Sue and Reed are?"

"I haven't seen them since Maximus captured us on the space station. Where is the bum?"

"I haven't found him yet. He could be anywhere. You should suit up."

Ben sighed. "I'm gettin' too old for this." Still, he blinked rapidly and his nanotech contact lenses came online. A menu of options scrolled down in front of him, and he followed them with his eyes until he had selected "Armor Mode: Full Defense." The unstable molecules in his costume shifted, stretched out so that they covered his nearly bald head except around his eyes, and stiffened until they resembled orange, rocky plates.

It didn't take them long to find Sue. Ben thought she still looked good for having turned 67 just a few days ago. She pulled back her gray hair as John plucked the sensors off her.

"Where's Reed?" was the first thing to come out of her mouth.

"Aw, you know Big Brain," Ben joked. "He probably freed himself sometime yesterday, but is still busy playin' with all the Watcher's toys."

"That is not too far from accurate," said a voice in his head.

"Huh? Who said that?"

"Did you hear a voice in your head too?" John asked.

"It's Reed," Sue said. "He just spoke to me too. But how are you doing this?"

"I wish I had more time to prepare you for the answer to that," Reed said.

Minutes later, John, Ben, and Sue were lovingly removing Reed's body from his stasis tube.

"It seems there was either an accident with my stasis tube or Maximus decided it wasn't escape-proof for me and chancing my escape was too risky," Reed's voice said with cold reason.

"Oh Reed," Sue sobbed, cradling her husband's head in her arms. "I can't bear to loose you. I can't go through this again..."

"Despite your emotional outburst, I think you've grasped the familiarity of this situation. It is not unlike our time in the Negative Zone when my body was mind-wiped by Taranith Gelstal, only this time my consciousness seems to be intact, but my body has died."

"Okay," Ben said, "so you're sayin' we can still save you later. How does this help us stop Maximus?"

"And where is your consciousness now if it's not in your body?" John asked.

"Good questions. As to the second, I believe some device of the Watcher's has captured' me. As to the first, we have to assume that the world hasn't given into Maximus' demands to name him Emperor of Earth and Moon yet, which means that more nuclear strikes may be forthcoming."

At that moment, a wall of the room exploded. A giant robot over 20 feet tall walked into the room through the whole. The robot was bristling with weapons. It whirred and hummed loudly as it moved. And then a voice was broadcast from out of the robot that sounded all too familiar.

"Sorry to interrupt this touching family reunion..."

"Maximus!"

"Yes, I've decided I'll have to rectify my mistake of not having killed you all sooner!"

No sooner had Maximus begun to laugh maniacally when all four of the Fantastic Four vanished from sight.

"Oh, please!" Maximus cried sarcastically. "I know that you're invis -- no! My scanners are sweeping the room with x-rays and still don't see them! How is this possible?"

"Maybe your robot needs fresh batteries?" the Human Torch said as he reappeared off Maximus' left flank. He gestured and the robot was instantly engulfed in an inferno.

"Is that the best you can do, Storm?" Maximus asked mockingly. "Now feel my firepower -- the heaviest ordinance my mind-controlled U.S. General could supply!"

As Maximus spoke, he had locked on target with his laser rangefinder, flipped some switches, pressed a button, and watched with sadistic glee as his 25 mm cannon and twin 40 mm grenade machine guns unleashed a torrent of violence that seemed to obliterate the Human Torch and demolished the far wall of the room. Maximus was laughing up until the moment a warning light alerted him to overheating on the rear of the battle armor. Now growling with anger, Maximus swung his sensor grid 180 degrees and saw, not one, but four Human Torches attacking him!

"My Nova Flame pinpointed on your backside oughtta burn a hole through any second now," the real Torch amongst his fiery decoys said, "and I'm betting your internal systems won't be able to absorb this much heat." What he left unsaid was that the Invisible Woman could now make herself and others invisible across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, but at the sacrifice of forcefield strength. He was just keeping Maximus busy while Sue and Ben moved Reed's body to safety.

Maximus fumed as he saw red lights appear one by one across his control panel. He rotated the grenade machine guns to the new targets, but watched impotently as his ammunition melted. "I will not lose now when I've come so far!" Maximus said outloud just as he thought up a desperate gamble. He had a 1,000 lb. bomb attached to the back of the armor, but if he ejected it, Storm would just melt it before it detonated. However, if he didn't eject the bomb...

The explosion ripped the arms and shoulder turrets right off the giant battle armor. The floor crumbled under the force of it and sent the 20 ft. construct plunging down to the room below in a ton of rubble. The explosion had snuffed out the Human Torch's flame. His protective sheath of super-heated plasma dissipated. The explosion had even jarred him back into phase, and at the worst possible moment. Blast shrapnel tore through unstable molecules, flesh, and bone. The ensuing fall broke still more, and as if that wasn't enough, he was half-buried and crushed by debris.

Barely conscious and bleeding both inside and out, John Storm painfully turned his head an inch so he could see the robot. To his astonishment and consternation, the robot was still moving despite being bent and twisted almost beyond recognition. It slowly lowered its head into the debris and used its legs to propel itself forward. It was coming to bulldoze him!

John closed his eyes and thought about Crystal. He remembered the pain of when they were apart, and the happiness of each time they were together. He thought of watching their daughter Lea grow up and of watching his grandson, Mark, being born. He started to cry when he thought about how close Lea had been to ground zero at the New York City strike. Summoning the last of his strength, he turned his sadness to anger, and pushed it all outwards in one last, final burst of radiant energy. The temperature spiked dramatically as John turned white hot. The alien metal around him grew soft and spongy.

The robot, now only five feet away, suddenly stopped. It was smoldering from inside, and every joint had fused.

Moments passed in silence before the sound of pounding on metal echoed through the place. At last, Maximus kicked a hatch open on the robot's right hip. He stepped out, clad in yet another, close- fitting battle suit. This one was made of black latex with exposed circuitry running all over it, plus a matching helmet, backpack, bracers, and boots of thicker metal. A circuit sparked on his suit as he moved, and he looked down and tapped it. "There goes the forcefield," he muttered. He stepped over John Storm, pointed his right arm at his foe, and pressed a stud on that arm's bracer. A slim laser pistol popped up, but it only popped up halfway and wasn't powering up. Maximus cursed. He started to pick up a piece of debris to smash Storm's head in, but looking back down, he saw it wasn't necessary. John Storm was gone.

Maximus retracted the laser pistol and deployed the rocket wings from his backpack. At least they were functioning. They roared into action, lifting Maximus off the ground and carrying him back to the floor above. Before he had gone far, however, his ears perked up to hear a woman's cry. Looking back down, he saw Crystal and Gorgon were awake again and had found their way to the battlesite – too late to save Crystal's human husband. He smirked at the thought that he could add their corpses to Storm's quickly enough, but the time was not right. His plans required that they live until they stood beside their king, Black Bolt, again. Then Maximus would, as Emperor of the Earth and Moon, lawfully order their executions. "Besides," Maximus muttered to himself, "I must find Richards first..."

"Where are you taking us?" Sue asked outloud, unsure of how else to replay to Reed's bodiless voice. "What about John?"

"I'll wait here and see that he don't get lost," Ben said as he stopped.

"That's fine," Reed's voice said in their minds. "The room we want isn't far ahead. While my mind is being held by the Watcher's machines, I seem to be more attuned to the layout of this place and its functions. We should be about to enter a laboratory or workshop."

Sure enough, Sue walked around a bend and saw a large, circular room that reminded her of one of Reed's labs back on Earth. She looked down once more at her husband's body cradled in her arms and found tears welling up in her eyes.

"Just put me down off to the side," Reed's voice said. "There's no time for dignity, I'm afraid. Ahead of you, you should see what look's like a blank screen. Look at it and visualize the Earth."

Sue did as she was told and, a second later, an image of Earth filled the screen. It looked like a live camera feed from outside, though she was sure it was somehow more complex than that. "It worked," she reported.

"Good. I believe this devise is somewhat like a television that uses your mind as a remote control, so think of some world capitals."

With some trial and error, Sue was able to zoom in on the image as needed. "Can you control this viewscreen with your thoughts?"

"I think I'm helping you, but the device that's holding my consciousness is interfering. Curiously, it isn't affecting my ability to communicate with you at all."

"One mystery at a time, dear," Sue said, intentionally sounding like Reed. "I think I can focus in on cities...oh my..."

There were no words to describe her horror when she saw what had happened to Washington, D.C.

"It's so...what can we possibly do to stop this?" she asked.

"Maximus has set events into motion that we may not be able to stop from here. With his mind-controlled generals in the U.S., China, and India attacking the rest of the world, WWIII was inevitable. I'm afraid what we need is literally a deus ex machina, or in this case, we have to hope the Watcher has the means to save the Earth."

Maximus was tracking the remaining original members of the Fantastic Four, sweeping the hallways with infrared light to pick up their footprints.

"Where's John?" the gravely voice of Ben Grimm asked.

From out of an alcove stepped Ben Grimm, looking much like his old self as the Thing thanks to the properties of his uniform. Maximus was even momentarily startled by it and stepped back.

"Out of my way, old man," Maximus said. "I've more important things to do than kill a man with one foot in the grave already."

"Izzat so? Well, with this other foot, I'm gonna kick your --!"

Ben didn't get the chance to finish his colorful statement, as Maximus had lunged forward and belted him in the face. "Fool!" the madman gloated. "Though my best armor suits have been destroyed, this back-up suit still boosts my strength threefold."

It was times like this that Ben wished he still had a fraction of the super-strength he had as the Thing. "I'll see your three and raise you four!" Ben said as he faked a right jab and then sucker punched Maximus with a left hook. Ben tried to follow that up with his right, but Maximus blocked it and then punched Ben twice in the arms, putting Ben on the defensive. Ben thrust with his right again, but Maximus side-stepped it, spun around, and elbowed Ben hard in the ribs. Ben knew how stupid that was, because his years of professional wrestling experience made him even more than a match for Maximus at such close range. He pinned Maximus' outstretched arm and dislocated the elbow. Maximus screamed in pain.

"I'll kill you, you stupid oaf!"

"You and what army, ya alpha primitive?"

That insult struck home. Though Maximus had exhausted his psionic powers while powering his mind-control engine, he reached out with those powers again to affect Ben Grimm's mind. The exertion was agonizing, but no more so than his dislocated elbow.

"What the--?" Ben said outloud as he noticed his limbs were stiffening. He knew that, as old as he was, he wouldn't be able to keep up this pace for long. That was why he was willing to fight dirty to end this fight quickly. But now he felt like he could barely move.

Maximus took advantage of Ben's new sluggishness by breaking free of Ben's hold, stepping back, and backhanding Ben across the face. Maximus tried to bring a double-handed fist down on Ben's head, but Ben had raised his arms by then to block it. Maximus punched Ben in the stomach, but Ben sucked it up and delivered another punch to Maximus in the face.

Ben watched the Inhuman wipe blood from under his nose with his knuckle. It looked just like human blood, though Maximus was not exactly human. It was that wretched Inhuman physiology that made him still seem so young. "If Maximus was wearing false teeth too, this fight would be over by now," Ben thought to himself. As he slowly blocked another punch from Maximus, that thought stuck with him. As he kept up his guard against more blows, its importance came to him. Maximus only seemed younger, and he only seemed stronger. His strength came from that suit he wore, and his exoskeleton looked suddenly vulnerable. Ben reached out, but instead of punching

Maximus, he grabbed hold of the metal-covered plastic and tore at it with all his strength.

"No!" Maximus cried as he jerked back. Metal was bent out of shape and wires were exposed against the plastic suit.

Ben smiled. He reached out again, and Maximus held up his arms to block him. Ben grabbed metal strips along his arms and tried to bend those as well. With his right arm, he even managed to break one loose.

Maximus saw that he'd lost the advantage, turned, and fled through a nearby archway.

"Hey, come back here, ya bum!" Ben yelled as he gave chase. The archway led into a room of unusual shape that had what Ben could only presume to be objects of contemporary art inside it. Maximus was there too, breaking a long rod off of a wave-shaped figure that seemed to be holding it. Ben raced in and slammed into a sphere on a tripod so Maximus would have to dodge it. While the Inhuman was off- balance, Ben raced in close enough that the long rod would be of little use and rammed into Maximus with his shoulder. Maximus staggered back and barely brought the rod up between them in time to block Ben's fists with it. Ben grabbed the rod and dashed it against the nearest wall hard enough to break it in half. Maximus managed to push Ben away, turned the broken rod around, and plunged the sharp end into Ben's stomach.

Ben slumped to the floor, the pole still sticking out of him. Maximus, surprised at his own success, had accidentally let go of it. Confident that Ben was about to die, Maximus turned to walk away. Again he underestimated Ben Grimm. With the great courage and inner strength that had once allowed him to stand up to the Champion of the Universe, Ben ignored the rod impaling his digestive organs and lunged forward. "Oh no you don't," he said weakly, but his grip was still firm as he grabbed onto Maximus' leg. Maximus tumbled forward to the ground as Ben lifted his leg and twisted it until it snapped. But that was the last ounce of strength Ben's old body could muster. Panting heavily, Ben slumped to the floor, closed his eyes, and soon stopped breathing altogether. Maximus, his elbow and leg broken and his armor damaged, dragged himself across the floor, determined to kill the rest of the Fantastic Four.

"Are you sure that's what it is?" Sue asked out loud.

"I can't be entirely sure," Reed's voice told her. "I can only guess that the flashes of insight I'm having about this lab are the result of my consciousness floating' through something akin to computer records. It's certainly hard to describe, though it does bare some resemblance to a free-floating cyberspace."

"That analysis isn't helping me, Reed," she said, trying to get him back on focus. What she was looking at appeared to be a white oval 18 inches long with a slit running down the middle. It was built into a counter that had what appeared to be buttons all around it.

"I hope you haven't pressed anything yet," Reed said gravely. "Use your power to make invisible things visible..."

Sue did as she was told, and sure enough, she could now see floating discs above each button at various heights, all connected by a web of light beams. She described it to him.

"I think I've accessed a sequence you'll have to press in order to deactivate the laser web," he said.

It was a simple task, but Sue was still so shaken that she needed Reed's help to concentrate. She needed to talk to him. She needed to believe he wasn't dead.

"Reed...you remember the night after you defeated Gormuu?"

"October 6, 1960? Why?"

"We were stargazing that night, and I asked you what you thought came after this life."

"Ah yes. I had trouble understanding your question until you put it in the context of religion."

"You said that you didn't have any answers as to what came after death, but that you'd work on that someday."

"That does sound like something I'd say. Press the right, upper corner button next."

"You know, I was raised to be a Protestant, and it troubled me a little at first that you didn't believe in anything. You always had to know what the answer was. In time, I realized that what you believed in was yourself."

"I suppose that's true. Now right hand side, two buttons down from the top row."

"I learned to believe in you too. We all did. More than any power any of us possessed, it was our deep faith in your ability to solve any problem that saw us through so many adventures."

"One button left. Press the middle button, bottom row. And step back."

As Sue did so, the last floating disc lowered into place around the oval as it opened up. Sue had to step back quickly as tesseracted space inside turned at an angle to face her. Suddenly, the contents of the oval swiveled into a 10-foot cubical that looked like a giant

3-D puzzle with pieces missing.

"What am I looking at?" she asked.

"Uatu's gift to us -- a recreation of the Ultimate Nullifier."

"The whole thing? The Nullifier was so small."

"Apparently, the technology used to build the original Nullifier was beyond even the Watchers. But it does appear to be a working model. If my plan works, your faith in me won't have been in vain."

"That's not it," she said, fighting back tears. "I never doubted you would find a way to save the world. But I have this terrible feeling that not even you can bring yourself back to me when this is over. I've thought I've lost you before. I've even tried to cope with living without you. But the thought of dying without you, and our souls not being together for eternity. Reed, I have to know --"

Her voice was cracking with emotion, but she was suddenly surprised by the sound of someone approaching from the corridor and she snapped out of it.

"Ben? John?"

It was neither. Maximus crawled into the room. He looked weak as a kitten, and lifted his head slowly and painfully. "So...what secrets did Uatu keep from me in here?" he asked, though his mouth was swollen and bruised.

"Where are Ben and John, Maximus?" Sue demanded.

Maximus laughed. It was that insane laugh that had always betrayed his true nature. "I have the pleasure, Mrs. Richards, of informing you that they are dead."

"You --"

Sue swung her arm, and invisible force lashed out against his side and sent him sprawling hard to the floor.

"-- had --"

She swung her arm up, and invisible force lifted him off the floor and slammed him into the ceiling.

"-- better --"

She swung her arm again, and the same force sent him flying across the room into the wall.

" -- be --"

She clenched a fist and the invisible force squeezed Maximus like a grape in a vice.

"-- lying!"

Maximus merely wasted what little breath he could get to his lungs on laughing. More than any other time in her life, Sue wanted to kill someone. "It would be so easy to crush you, Maximus. Avenge all the lives you've taken..."

"Yet that would hardly be like you, Susan Richards," said a familiar voice from inside a nimbus of energy that suddenly crackled about the chamber. "Stay your hand and let just revenge be handled by another."

The Silver Surfer, holding his board, stepped into the room. Behind him, Uatu the Watcher suddenly appeared.

Sue relaxed her powers and let Maximus fall in a crumpled heap to the floor. The Silver Surfer moved towards him.

"No...get...back," Maximus managed to sputter out of fear.

"You don't have to kill him either," Sue said.

"And yet, what other punishment would be fitting? Uncounted billions died because of me when I was Galactus' herald. Dare I let Maximus off easier?"

"...mercy..." was the last word Maximus found the strength to utter.

"Ask for mercy from the next being you encounter," the Surfer said, as the Power Cosmic began to coalesce around his fists. He gestured simply, but the waves of force that rippled from his fingers were powerful enough to tear the flesh from Maximus' bones and then pulverize his bones until they were nothing but dust.

"So ends the threat of Maximus the Mad," Uatu spoke.

"But there remains the devastation he had wrought. Even my command over the Power Cosmic is not great enough to undo what he had done," the Surfer said.

"Uatu has seen to that for us, though in such a way so as not to break his race's vow of nonintervention," Reed's voice told them. "As Sue and I once witnessed, the Ultimate Nullifier has the power to destroy a bubble of time. We can use it to erase all recent

events, and give the past another chance to prevent them from happening again. Uatu has provided us with just such a tool."

"But how did you learn of this, Richards, and where are you now?" the Surfer asked.

"I'm ...not alive now," Reed replied, "but I suspect my current state of being was prearranged by Uatu as well. The machine that now binds my consciousness, perhaps my soul, to this plane was designed to give the first of us who fell in combat to Maximus a second chance at finding the Ultimate Nullifier Uatu hid from him. Am I right?"

"Even in death you are as brilliant as ever, Reed Richards," Uatu replied, "but tell me, how do you propose to use it?"

"I grasp your meaning, Uatu," the Surfer said. "I understand that the activation of the Nullifier will not only obliterate a portion of the timeline, but the one who activates it as well. I volunteer freely to be that person."

"No," Reed's voice said. "You alone would be able to ride the resulting temporal wave into the past and prevent this future from occurring again. Anyone else would just be flung off into an alternate timeline."

"Then who, Richards?" the Watcher asked. "Hurry with your answer, for my technology cannot hold you here much longer."

"Will you, Uatu?" Reed asked. "You have indirectly been involved in every aspect of this already. You know how many lives have been lost -- Earthlings you have watched from the moment they were born to the moment their lives were unfairly ended too soon."

"Yet, as you say, Richards, they were all Earthlings. The emotional attachment to them you still feel in your soul does not exist so strongly in mine."

"Stop!" Sue shouted. "Why won't anyone come out and say the obvious? I have to be the one to use the Nullifier."

"Sue, no -- we'll find another way," Reed's voice said frantically.

"No, Reed. I may be afraid of losing you, but I'm not afraid to die. I've lived a good life. I've been to other worlds, explored other dimensions, raised two children, and watched my grandchildren being born. This should be their time now, not mine. I'm going to give it back to them."

"Sue...what you asked me earlier...I've spent a lifetime trying to explain the universe with science, but the one thing I've never had to prove or understand rationally was my love for you. I don't know what's about to happen to me, or what kind of judgment I've earned, but I can't imagine a universe where my love for you won't continue to exist. I love you."

"I love you too."

Silence fell over the chamber. It lasted too long, and horror crept over Sue at the realization as to why.

"The choice is still yours to make, Susan Richards," Uatu said, "but if you choose the ultimate sacrifice, then I would be proud to stand by you and watch your last act of heroism. Norrin Radd," he said, turning to the Surfer, "it would be best if you were not within six miles when the Nullifier is activated if you wish to ride into the past."

"Will I not encounter Sue in the past?"

"No. I cannot say how far into the past Sue's presence will have unraveled, but there is a chance she will retroactively cease to exist altogether."

"No one would even remember me?" Sue gasped, wanting to cry.

"It is possible. Even those within a limited radius of the Nullifier -- myself included -- run this risk."

"Susan..." the Surfer began to say.

"Go, Norrin," Sue said sternly. "If my children still exist in the past, tell them I loved them."

At his mental command, his board floated horizontal and the Silver Surfer leapt atop it. And then he was gone, racing through the tunnels of the Watcher's abode until he found his way out. Seven miles above the surface of the Moon, he slowed down and waited.

Back inside, Sue Richards reached into a recess of the Ultimate Nullifier and flipped a switch.

On June 18, 2001, Frank Richards brought his wife, Rachel, and his second son, Ben, home from the hospital. The entire Inhuman Royal Family turned out to greet them. Crystal was the first to get to hold the new baby. Gorgon remarked that Ben looked just like his namesake, and everyone thought that was a very good thing. T'Challa was there with presents from Wakanda. The three of them, plus Frank, had just returned from an adventure in Paris and were still wearing their Fantastic Four Inc. matching uniforms. Frank and Rachel both insisted on not being called Mr. and Mrs. Fantastic by family members, though the press seemed to love the names. The Silver Surfer stood slightly apart from the others, watching the joy and happiness he saw in all his friends. Frank and Rachel, both being strong telepaths, looked at him and nodded approvingly. Yes, all three agreed, they owed this day to Reed, Sue, Ben, and John. Thank God the world once had such people in it.


End file.
